Boracay foreign visitors up 3.33 percent

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

Boracay has attracted 431,007 foreign tourists in the first seven months of the year, up by 3.33 percent over the same period from 417,109 visitors last year, data released by Malay Municipal Tourism Office showed.

Korea remains at the top, contributing 39.53 percent or 170,408 visitors to the total foreign arrivals, followed by China in second with 78,688 or 18.26 percent and Taiwan in third with 34,872 visitors, a share of 8.09 percent from total arrivals.

International tourist arrival from Korea also grew by 20.33 percent during the first seven months from 141,615 over the similar period in 2014. 

The number of domestic visitors to Boracay from January to July is also estimated at 512,840, down by 1.45 percent from 505,388 last year. 

Tourists from East Asia countries composed of Hong Kong, Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan had 296,153 arrivals or 68.71 percent of international travelers followed by Canada, Mexico and United States from North America with 22,528. 

For this year, tourist arrivals reported a surge in the first seven months with 973,434 from 951,964 visitors compared to last year or an increase of 22.55 percent.

The months of April had the most number of arrivals with 178,656 visitors followed by May with 168,025; January with 133,598; February, 130,293; March, 124,804; July, 121,266 and June, 116,792.     

Boracay welcomed 1,472,352 visitors during 2014, than in 2013 with  1,363,601.